Text and the printed page have been known for hundreds of years. Since the original invention of movable type, typesetters have used a variety of artistic type designs intended to accentuate or clarify their communication. These designs, known as typefaces, are created by skilled artists.
In contrast to the printed page, people have been writing by hand for thousands of years. Although in the past writers may have strictly shaped their letters according to a particular standard, today handwriting is unique to each individual despite being based, at the time of instruction, on a common, normative handwriting model.
Some typeface designers have created typefaces based on the characteristics of handwriting. For example, the typefaces Mistral and Tekton are based on personal handwriting or lettering. There are also computer typefaces designed to resemble cursive writing, such as script, and are commonly found on desktop computers today.
Not only are standard typefaces resembling an individual's handwriting widely available, there are today, commercial services that will create a personal typeface based on a handwriting sample for any customer who desires it. These services create typefaces used on a computer for rendering text. A single character within a handwritten font may take several forms depending on the surrounding, contextual characters; see U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,771, issued May 2, 1995, to Fenwick.
Since the advent of handwriting, handwritten text has been used to personalize communication. An extreme case is the signature, considered to be definitive proof of the writer's identity. More generally, a handwritten communication is taken to be more personal and emotive than a printed textual communication whether printed by computer, typewriter, or other machine.
Printed photographic images for consumers are often personalized with text, that is the photographic print or an object bearing the photographic image contains a message with special meaning to the owner. For example, a picture given as a gift might have a message written on the picture expressing suitable sentiments to the recipient. When written by computer, these personalized messages are rendered from a text string in an existing typeface, in a suitable font, chosen either by the gift creator or by the manufacturer of the product. The text strings are typically entered via keyboard by an operator or by the customer herself.
An additional level of personalization can be obtained by using the customer's own handwriting as the "rendered" text. This handwritten string can be scanned as an image, suitably processed to extract the "handwriting image" and composited into the product (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/752,701). Individuals may also like to provide the appearance of handwritten communications separately from any image or other presentation, for example, in a standard letter.
Unfortunately, many people have practically illegible handwriting and are reluctant to use their own writing, whether manual or computer rendered, for fear of embarrassment. This is especially true when the handwriting is used to personalize a gift. There is a need therefore for an improved method of generating personal handwriting to be used, for example, on personalized gifts and photographs.